"Now it is such a bizarrely improbably coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful [the Babel fish] could have evolved by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic."
(Douglas Adams / 1952-2001 / The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
"It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us."
(Peter De Vries, American, author and journalist / 1910-1993)
"I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God."
(Thomas Edison / 1847-1931 / Columbian Magazine)
"Where is the soul? . . . I refuse to believe anything of that kind without proof. The idea that, as soon as a man's breath leaves his body, the soul flops out like a chicken's head and flies off into space to find a lodgment where there [are] harps and haloes. Too much for me."
(Robert Green Ingersoll / 1833-1899)
"Not to believe that something exists because it would be too horrible if it does not exist. There is no proof owing to the horrible one."
(Jean Rostand / 1894-1977 / Thoughts of a Biologist / 1939)
"The argument from design stands or falls on whether it can be demonstrated that some aspect of the universe such as its origin or biological life could not have come about naturally. The burden of proof is ... on the supernaturalist to demonstrate that something from outside nature must be introduced to explain the data."
(Vic Stenger, Particle physicist / Has Science Found God? / 2001)
"One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed it. They also believed the world was flat."
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Notebook)